REVIEW: Hamnet (Maggie O'Farrell)

Book: Hamnet

Author: Maggie O'Farrell

My rating: 5/5.

Premise: On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home? Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that one of the children will not survive the week.

[⚠️CW: grief, domestic abuse]

This book was gorgeous. It's not especially plot driven, but full of beautiful descriptions and emotions - the best sort of book for an afternoon reading in the sun. I love how, though its clear this book is about Shakespeare and his family, he is never mentioned by name. Instead he's referred to as "father", "husband" and "the Latin tutor", among other things. I found this made him more human but also prevented his celebrity from hindering the story. The first half of the book covers the week leading up to Hamnet's death and the back story of his parents. I loved Agnes' character - her strength of character, her determination, her independence. The second half is about grief and how the different people grieve. It also showed the raw emotions following the loss of a child, the haunting of memories. All of this culminates in the play Hamlet and that last section was both gorgeous and sad. A beautiful book.